1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to ring designs and, more particularly, to a stamped hollow ring design having a comfort fit.
2. Background
It is well known in the art to provide a hollow ring design including, but not limited to, a hollow ring design having a comfort fit. For example, several patents in the name of Robert Baum, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,718,278, 5,916,271, 5,979,534, 6,032,719 and 6,123,141, disclose a hollow jewelry ring having a comfort fit which is formed by investment casting. While investment casting has several advantages, it suffers from the fact that the finally-formed ring has relatively “thick” components, resulting in more expensive materials than if stamping were utilized.
Stamping of a hollow ring design is also known as indicated by the patent to Gefen, U.S. Pat. No. 6,701,618. In the Gefen '618 patent, a two-piece ring is provided having an inner ring portion and an outer ring portion. Each portion may be formed by stamping or casting. According to the method of the Gefen patent, the inner ring portion is placed inside the outer ring portion, and then the inner ring portion is expanded so as to be force fit into the outer ring portion. Such force fitting is difficult to accomplish, is time consuming and oftentimes provides a less than satisfactory finished product.
The patent to Siebenberg, U.S. Pat. No. 6,116,053, discloses a method of manufacturing a seamless hollow comfort fit ring, such as a wedding band, in which ring-size “washers” are punched out at a press-machine. The washers are then soldered together at their outside edges to form a comfort fit wedding band. While Siebenberg discloses the very broad concept of stamping a ring with a comfort fit, his ring does not provide a fully formed shank which cooperates with a smaller outside top piece in order to provide a myriad number of design alternatives for the ultimately formed ring. Moreover, because of the method used to form the ring in Siebenberg, extensive soldering and finishing along each side of the ring is required.
In view of the above limitations and problems, one object of the present invention is to provide a hollow ring design, having a comfort fit, which may be formed by stamping the shank and stamping the top piece, while avoiding the problems and disadvantages of the prior art.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a hollow ring design, having a comfort fit, which does not require casting but which can be stamped to thereby form the ring in an efficient and cost-reduced manner.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a hollow ring design, having a comfort fit, which does not require force fitting the shank to the top piece of the ring.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hollow ring design, having a comfort fit, which does not require excessive welding or soldering.
Still other objects of the present invention will be obvious and/or apparent from the following description.